Making Your Own Ice Bucket Challenge and a Tweet to Put It In Perspective

I know there are haters. And sure, one can always find ways to criticize the ALS ice bucket challenge. But, what you cannot do is deny it. Having raised north of 50 million, I’m sure that the various organizations helping ALS research and sufferers are just fine being the target of some criticism.

One article that I found extremely useful in understanding why this particular exercise has been so wildly successful was in Psychology Today. It gives six reasons why the challenge is so effective. Here’s’ the roundup:

1. It is fun.
2. It is specific and time-limited.
3. It calls others out in a public way.
4. It asks for a reasonable amount of money.
5. It effectively uses guilt.
6. It utilizes appealing role models.

My challenge to all nonprofits, businesses, marketers and entrepreneurs is this…how many of these can you incorporate into all campaigns you engage in…and if you cannot, why not? Which of these makes you uncomfortable (my guess is numbers 3 and 5) and which can you do a better job of?

Make no mistake, the enormous success of this effort will change fundraising and marketing going forward. There are over 50 million reasons why.

Your tweet of the day comes from Larry Cebula. I love it because it underlines the insanity of our society, which seems to favor the shiny and fast over the slow and consistent. I say…work to change it, if it bothers you…but in the meantime, use it to the advantage of your organization.

 

I live in a country where we try to fund basic biomedical research by dumping water on one another's heads.

— Larry Cebula (@larrycebula) August 25, 2014